Flash You Back
by Mizzykitty
Summary: Ever wonder how Shingo and Sayuki met? A cute lil story about a coupla IniD kidlets.


The little pigtailed girl steeled herself as she opened her front door and peeped out into the street. Ever since she'd moved to this neighborhood, she'd been afraid to leave her house. Every day she dreaded going to school and every morning she hoped against hope that things would be different. The coast looked clear, but that didn't mean much. Her daily tormentor liked hiding just out of view.

"Sweetheart, you'd better leave before you're late to school," her mother called from the kitchen.

"Hai," she mumbled, with a decided lack of enthusiasm.

She adjusted her glasses, hooked her thumbs in her backpack straps, and marched out of the house.

Halfway down her front steps she heard a rustling in the bushes that lined her lawn. She squared her shoulders and tensed.

"Look, it's Sayuki-chan the praying mantis girl!" came the familiar sneering voice of the boy next door. "Nice pigtails, they make you look even dumber!"

Sayuki yelped as he yanked on one of her pigtails.

"Stop it! Leave me alone!" she shouted, aiming a kick at his shins. He dodged out of the way and pulled her other pigtail with glee.

"Praying mantis girl!" he taunted again.

"Don't call me that! Shouji Shingo, you leave me alone!" shouted the girl in frustration as she struggled hard not to cry. For once, she wasn't going to let him make her cry. She sniffled slightly, but continued walking.

As usual, Shingo followed right on her heels.

"Praying mantis girl, how come you're so thin? Doesn't your mom ever feed you?"

She tried to ignore the insults, but she could feel the familiar sting in her eyes that meant she would soon be crying. Then, remembering that today she wouldn't cry in front of him, she broke into a run. Of course he ran after her, but it was harder for him to insult her when the two of them were sprinting full force down the sidewalk.

By the time she got to school, she was hot and sweaty, but at least her tears had dried. She ran straight into the girl's bathroom…her only refuge. Splashing some cold water on her face made her feel better, but when the first bell rang, she trudged to her classroom for another day of misery.

Shingo snickered as she slid into her seat, directly in front of him. She had begged the teacher to change the seating chart many times, but he had refused. She sighed in resignation as something, most likely a wad of paper, hit the back of her head. It would only get worse as the day went on, so she simply endured it.

When she didn't respond, he started jabbing her with his pencil.

"Mantis girl! You smell!" he whispered.

"Shouji!" barked the teacher.

"Er…hai!" Shingo stood up, to the snickering of the class.

"Do you have something to say?"

"No, sensei!" he replied.

The teacher glared at him.

"Then perhaps you'd better be quiet and pay attention, don't you think?"

"Hai," the boy muttered as he sat back down.

Sayuki turned around and flashed him her biggest grin before returning her attention to the lesson. Shingo made several grumbling noises under his breath, but thankfully nothing more was thrown or said for the rest of the class period.

When the lunch bell rang, all the kids rushed for the cafeteria. The girl tried to lose herself in the crowd, even though she knew it was only a temporary relief. Sooner or later she would be found, and then the taunts and insults would continue.

She sat down at an empty table and pulled out the lunch her mom had made that morning. As she glanced around the small cafeteria, she noticed that most of the other girls had already made friends with one another. Sayuki was sure she would have too, if she'd been given a chance. But ever since her family had moved to their new house, the boy next door had been pestering her mercilessly. When she complained, her mother had told her that she was only interesting because she was new, and that he would eventually tire of it. But now, three weeks later, he was still at it. The other girls didn't want to be around her when he was around, and he was around all the time. Therefore, she hadn't had a chance to make any friends. School, she decided, was a horrible place.

"Hey Sayuki, better eat more than that, or you'll always be a praying mantis!"

Her head snapped up when she heard an accompanying chorus of laughter. To her surprise, two other little boys were with Shingo. It seemed he didn't have any problems making friends. She wrinkled her nose, stuck out her tongue, and went back to her lunch.

"You look like a horse when you stick your tongue out like that," the annoying boy commented. One of the other boys neighed. All three laughed.

She didn't feel very hungry any more, but she kept eating anyway. Her mom would lecture her if she came home without finishing her lunch. And besides, it gave her something other than Shingo and his stupid friends to focus on.

"Hey Sayuki! How many fingers am I holding up?"

"I don't know," she muttered without looking up.

"Then what are those big glasses for?" Shingo asked, peering at her from across the lunch table.

"Four-eyes, four-eyes!" one of the other boys started chanting.

Then suddenly, the third boy reached around from behind her and snatched her glasses off her head.

"Haha! Can you see now?" the boy taunted.

"Hey, give those back!" she shouted, jumping to her feet and chasing after him.

He ran around the lunch table, waving her glasses and mocking her. Because she simply couldn't help it this time, Sayuki burst into tears as she flailed for her glasses.

"Hey, give those back to her!" Shingo demanded, stepping in front of the other boy and blocking his path around the table.

Sayuki pulled up short, almost colliding with the boy she was chasing. She abruptly stopped her wailing when she saw the tense situation developing between the two boys. For the moment, she had become invisible.

"What? No!" the boy refused. Shingo made a grab for him, but he dodged. "Why should I?"

"Because I said so!"

"What are you, her boyfriend?" the boy jeered.

Without warning, Shingo launched himself at the boy and knocked him to the ground. The two wrestled around on the floor as every kid in the cafeteria ran to the scene of the fight. Sayuki was shoved from all sides as the children formed a ring around the combatants, cheering and shouting.

Within moments, the teachers descended on the children like hawks hunting mice.

"Break it up!" the teacher bellowed, pushing kids out of his way as he leapt into the fray. Since Shingo happened to be on top at the time, the teacher grabbed him by the collar and hauled him off the other boy. Another teacher then pulled the other boy to his feet.

"Jiro! You're bleeding!" the second teacher gasped.

Jiro started crying.

"It's all his fault! He started it! I-I wasn't doing anything!" he hiccuped as a small trail of blood trickled from his nose.

"I did not!" Shingo protested.

"You stop lying!" the teacher scolded, giving the boy a shake. "You're in serious trouble as it is!" With that, he dragged the still protesting Shingo to the principle's office. The other teacher led the sniffling Jiro in the opposite direction, to the nurse's office.

Once the teachers were gone, the crowd of children dispersed. Sayuki retrieved her glasses from the floor with relief, but when she tried to put them on, she noticed that they were bent out of shape and completely unwearable. With dismay she realized her mother would most likely be angry about the glasses.

"Boys are so stupid!" she declared as she stuffed the useless glasses into her backpack and sat down to finish lunch.

The rest of the day dragged on as the little girl sat at her desk and doodled on her notebook. She couldn't see the blackboard, and had given up trying hours ago. She kept turning around, expecting to see that annoying neighbor boy making faces at her, but Shingo had not returned from the principle's office. She wondered why he had stuck up for her. It wasn't as if he hadn't done a hundred worse things to her during the short time they'd known each other. He didn't even like her, and she most definitely didn't like him. Boys just didn't make any sense.

"Stupid boys," she muttered under her breath.

But for some reason, she found herself continually glancing at the door, hoping he would return.

When the last bell finally rang, Sayuki breathed a sigh of relief. She quickly stuffed her books and notebooks into her backpack and headed for the door. As usual, she made straight for the bathroom. She slowly straightened her hair, and washed her hands. Then she went into a stall and sat, quietly staring into space. After several minutes of this, it dawned on her that for once, she didn't have to wait around hoping Shingo would give up and walk home without her. Feeling better than she had all day, she exited the bathroom. On her way down the corridor, she suddenly realized that in her rush to leave the classroom, she had forgotten her backpack. With a gasp, she ran back to class in the hopes that it was still there.

Flinging open the door, she dashed into the classroom.

"Hey, mantis girl!" Shingo looked up from the window he was cleaning as she entered the room. "I was wrong about the glasses…you should leave them on, at least then they cover your face."

"What are /you/ doing here?" she hissed.

"Boy, you really are dumb! What's it look like I'm doing?" he sneered.

"It looks like you don't know how to wash a window, that's what!" she shot back.

"What are you talking about?" the boy growled.

Sayuki stalked over and snatched the paper towel from his hands. She pointed to the patch of glass he had wiped at the bottom of the window, which was now streaked with cleaner.

"You have to wipe it from the top. Otherwise, it's just going to run down on top of the part you already cleaned!"

"I knew that!" he said and snatched the paper towel back. "I don't need your help! Go away, mantis girl!"

A thought occurred to Sayuki, and she giggled at the irony of the situation.

"What's so funny?" Shingo sniffed warily.

"You! Now /you/ want /me/ to go away! Ha!" she snorted.

"When you snort like that, it makes you sound more like a pig than a girl!" he mocked.

"At least I'm smart enough to know how to clean a window, stupid!" she countered.

Shingo gaped in shock. It was the first time she had ever fought back, and he simply didn't know how to react. Sayuki stared back at him, surprised that for once, he had nothing to say.

"What're you looking at?" he asked, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"An ugly stupid rat boy!" Sayuki answered, making a face.

Once again, he merely regarded her with a stunned (if truculent) silence.

Sayuki decided she very much liked her newfound power to make Shingo shut up.

"Why're you still here? Go away and leave me alone!" he grumbled as he returned to the window, starting from the top this time.

"No!" She flopped down on a desk and kicked her legs in the air. "You never leave me alone, so why should I leave you alone?"

She smiled sweetly at him when he turned around to glare at her.

"Fine, stay! See if I care!"

"Fine, I will!" she replied, kicking her legs with renewed vigor. After a few moments, she suddenly asked, "Where's Jiro? Isn't he in trouble too?"

"No, they sent him home early. Besides, everyone says I started it."

"But it was his fault! That's no fair!" Sayuki protested.

Shingo shrugged.

"Who cares?"

"I would," she insisted.

"Yeah, but you're a dumb girl, so what would you know?"

"A lot more than you," she retorted.

The little boy snorted.

"Maybe, but you weren't there. And anyway, you should've seen Sasaki-sensei." Shingo struck a pose. "Fighting is a very serious offense," he repeated, trying to lower his voice. Then he waggled his eyebrows in a comical imitation of their teacher's glower.

Sayuki burst into a fit of giggles.

"You're right, he does that all the time!"

"Sayuki!" a voice suddenly interrupted them. Startled, both children turned to see their teacher standing in the doorway looking highly displeased.

She froze, sure that the teacher had heard. Or worse, he might accuse her of being involved in the fight in the lunchroom. The teacher approached.

"I noticed you aren't wearing your glasses. Where are they?"

"They got bent during lunch," she answered. "I didn't do it, but now mom and dad are going to be mad!"

Unexpectedly, the teacher smiled at her.

"I see. How about I write your parents a note explaining what happened? Would that help?"

The little girl's eyes rounded.

"Thank you, sensei!"

"You're welcome. Why don't you come with me to my office, and I'll write it for you."

"Hai!" she answered, quickly grabbing her forgotten backpack and falling in step behind him.

"And you!" he fixed Shingo with a warning glare. "This is detention, not social time! Get back to work!"

"Hai," the boy mumbled.

When the teacher turned around, Shingo stuck his tongue out at his back. Sayuki clapped her hands over her mouth, barely stifling a snigger as she exited the classroom and followed the teacher to his office.

The teacher pulled out a pad of paper out of his desk and quickly wrote a note to her parents.

"Were you hurt in the fight today?" he asked.

Sayuki shook her head.

"No, I'm ok."

"That's good." Having finished, he handed her the note. "I've been thinking about it, and if you still want me to change your seat, I will."

She contemplated it for a moment, and then shook her head.

"No, that's ok. I don't mind it so much any more."

The teacher quirked an eyebrow in surprise, but said nothing.

"Thank you for the note, sensei. See you tomorrow!" she bowed slightly then walked to the door.

"You're welcome. See you tomorrow."

Stuffing the note into her pocket, the little girl smiled to herself. Maybe school wasn't so bad after all.


End file.
